Reflections on Feedback: teacher Maria del Pilar Rodríguez

Feedback is very important, especially when talking about teaching, since it is the only way there is to know things are being done properly and it also encourages teachers to improve. Nevertheless it becomes a hard (job) task because teachers don't know how students might react to it. Teachers must be very tactful when giving feedback, it should be in a a friendly way so students won't feel neither criticized nor offended. I think with children it is very dificult to do it that way since the more tactful it is done
the easier they will confuse concepts and won't realize they made a mistake. children don't care about making mistakes, they only care about being undrestood, so if it is something wrong, they will forget very easily. Teachers need to give feedaback, but with children it is a waste of time. They will correct their mistakes little by little; only practice with them will make them aware of them.

Mid-Term Projects

Hello everyone!!

Here we have the first two projects for the Class! Luisa and Alejandro have done an excellent work on planning and peer review.

You can download them and post comments about our teachers' work. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your class plans.

PROJECTS

Just to Share... Teacher Paola Andrea Cardona

§ Building language awareness:

In many of my courses with kids I’ve notice that there is a common fact among students: most of the time they don’t speak English. They are starting the process of interacting with this language and in general they don’t realize the importance of it in their lives.

We as teachers are mainly the support they have, not only for telling them that it is important, but for encouraging them to use it in their daily activities as something fun that can enjoy and at the same time learn from it.

There are several activities to build language awareness that don’t have to be focus on a specific age, they can create consciousness in kids, teenagers and adults- those ones who are not completely involved with English and perhaps are true beginners; those things can help them to get involved in the process of learning the language enthusiastically.

§ Contextualizing language:

It is not a secret that interaction and visuals are vital to the development of an effective learning process no matter in which subject: English, social studies, arts and even math. Sometimes we learn both faster and better by association; our job as teacher is to provide as many activities to associate with the background knowledge as we can, of course, taking into account the aims and expectations of our students and avoiding the confusion with something else.

When contextualizing something, many doubts and misconceptions can appear- there has to be a fact that clarify those doubts with both the teacher’s help and the clarification of the existing context- everything around us (sounds, smells, objects, etc).

§ Integrated skills tasks:

This is something we must keep in mind all time because with activities like this we can not only test our students’ comprehension, but have a clear idea about their strengths and weaknesses and that way know specially where is important to focus.

When we talk about integrated skills task, maybe the first thing that comes to our minds (at least to mine) is something boring, long and sometimes even doubt about the success of the activity. I think those activities should be developed with games, that allow our students to have fun and acquire a kind of accuracy dealing with all the skills.

§ Authentic materials:

Sometimes I found myself in the middle of a lesson planning session without knowing which extra material would be helpful for my class, and actually I had never thought about the authentic materials we discussed in our last session.

To me, the class was mainly focused on the academic purpose and the materials I used were directly related with the topic of the class leaving music as an extra-aid to focus even more in the topic of the lesson, or sometimes to relax the students. Realia wasn’t something actively used, but after our session of “authentic materials” I came up with a bunch of ideas for my classes.

Not because I’m teaching kids it has to mean that the class is going to end up being a mess, but the authentic materials used can be that “key” to let the English as a passive component for a while and incorporate things from the outside -from that reality they know and enjoy- to set a nice class environment.

*Paola Andrea Cardona M*

Assessment for integrated-skill tasks: teacher Luisa Fernanda Quintero

Assessing integrated-skill tasks

One the most useful ways to get our students involved into the learning of a foreign language is through the integration of the different skills, which help them to see this new language as a tool of communication and as a bridge to get to know different cultures.

Content-based language instruction and task-based instruction are two types of integrated skills approach .The first of these emphasizes learning content through language, in which students practice the different skills while learning content such as science, math, etc. The second stresses doing tasks that require communicative language use and include pair and group work, since students need to develop different tasks which they should interact and cooperate with other people.

The importance of this approach is that the students are not solely exposed to learn a new language, but they are also communicating their own ideas while working on topics that are of their interest. Therefore, in this approach, assessment should be developed in a way in which students can demonstrate knowledge and ability in several areas.

A performance task is a good kind of assessment, since this provides the opportunity to put into practice what students have learned and to demonstrate what they are able to do, and what is difficult for them. Examples of this may include the development of a project based on a specific topic or on a topic of their interest, so they can feel comfortable and confident with what they are doing And at the same time, they are applying al the skills they have developed during the lessons.

Luisa Fernanda Quintero Correa

A few words from Teacher María del Pilar Rodríguez

Can we say that we have the whole the responsabilty of our students' leaning? We give them the basis to learn, we try to guide them towards success, but does it mean that if they don't reach their final goal is our fault? They learn what they really want to learn, if they don't want to, they won't; it is up to them if they really want to take advantage of what we are giving them. I'm saying this, because we as teachers try to give our students the best from us, telling what they should or shouldn't do, try to make them be aware of the importance of the use of English in class and why they shouldn't use spanish, but most of them never get to understand it, so their progress takes longer, so they think it is our fault, if we get to make them aware of this issue we will have reached a very important objective in our role as teachers

Miscellaneous: Teacher John Alejandro Arias

Metacognition and Secondary School Learners

We, teachers, provide the students with different ways to reach one goal. So it depends on them to select the most suitable and comfortable route, considering the knowledge about their own language learning process. The idea is that that they take a way in which they can achieve the objective, but the most important fact is that if they are able to do it, they can feel that they really learn and that they can apply what they have just learnt in another task.

Language awareness

Some of the problems that students may have are linked to their mother tongue because they usually manage their minds as translators, going form L1 to L2. They do not think in the target language to produce the target language. Therefore it is important to show them the differences and similarities between L1 and L2.

Cognitive Awareness

“Just because” or “because my parents want me to learn it” are the most frequent answers you may get when you ask teenagers “Why do they study English?” The word motivation becomes a nightmare for most teachers, then.

Social Awareness

If you are Roger Federer (No. 1) and you never lose, you will not improve your skills. That is the importance of Rafael Nadal (No. 2).

Cultural Awareness

You are NOT alone, you are NOT a legend.

Why Is the Development of Metacognitive Awareness Important?

When students get home, they usually reflect on what they have just learnt and why they learnt it. The frequent answer is “to pass the next exam”. After that, that knowledge becomes futile, and most of them just throw it away.

Metalanguage in Focus on Form in the Communicative Classroom

In my classes, I often put the form-focused instruction at the beginning, because I consider that my students will feel comfortable and confident enough to participate in post-communicative activities realizing of what they say and being able to say what they want to say.

Though focus on form allows students to draw attention to linguistic items that may be problematic to them, we, teachers, must be aware of our students’ shyness since most of the times they just pretend to have understood or deduced the grammar applied.

In my opinion, it goes totally linked to the purpose that students may have to learn the L2, if they have one.

Luisa Fernanda Quintero comments Metacognitive Awareness

It is important that, in any class, students understand why they are using the language for, especially when learning a foreign language, since most of them are usually comparing it to their mother tongue. I think this is the purpose of creating a metacognitive awareness, because students are always looking for an explanation about the similarities and especially the differences between their mother tongue and the new language they are learning. From my point of view, although children are always asking for reasons to everything they know, we can develop a metacognitive awareness in a very indirect way, since they do not seem to be interested in understanding the use of the language, and they try to use it without wondering what it is for. On the other hand, when we are talking about teenagers and adults, they need to have a concrete explanation, so, they can use language easily. Although, it is sometimes said that students can learn from deducing from different situations the use of the language, they need an explanation in order to clarify or solve the doubts they have about it. Therefore, we, as teachers, need to be well prepared to give our students good bases, in order for them to become aware of the use of the language in any situation, thus the student become aware of his achievements and the things that need to be improved.

Luisa Fernanda Quintero Correa

On Reflective Teaching: Teacher María del Pilar Rodríguez

I know it is hard to believe but as a teacher I reflect on my teaching everyday, specially with children;after having working with them for 6 years now I can say that sometimes I feel tired of teaching them, it is not the same as it used to be at the beginning, I know there are many external factors that have to do with it, ( children now are not the same as they were before, I'm not the same as I was before, now I have more experience but I also feel tired and they are more hyperactive!)I don't feel the energy I used to feel when I first started teaching them and it is very hard to teach children that don't want to learn.
Teachers as well as children need motivation to learn and when they study English just because their parents tell them to do so, teachers can feel that and we feel discouraged.
I have tried to give them my best, so they can feel excited about English, but with them it is never enough!

On Reflective Teaching: John Alejandro Arias

I consider my classes are done for my students, although it was not like that at the beginning. I remember that a year ago, I was totally concerned about how the students saw my class, about what they say about me. Nowadays, I am completely afraid of my students' learning. If they understand the topics or if they don't. That's why I am always asking them about it.

However, it is just the start of my career, so I know many challenges are coming, and I have to be prepared (it is not just to wait for them to hit me)

On Reflective teaching: Luisa Fernanda Quintero

Well, it’s difficult to write about things I have done in my classes, because I didn’t remember very well. From what I can remember, I like very much doing games, I try to relate the games to the topic; the most successful game has been apple lemon, I’ve used it not only with words, but with sentences, especially related to the topic. As I’ve been teaching only kids, they like to move a lot, so I try to make them move, and I have to become a clown, which has been a bit difficult since I’m very quiet, but it’s one of the things I enjoy about my classes. Referring to grammar explanations, I think it has been difficult, not because they do not understand, but because I have to emphasize a lot on the specific points, and I try to do it indirectly, but they always ask for the “rule”, and I’ve noticed this has helped them. In order to see if they understand, they try to give examples about themselves, but orally. The difficult part is when they have to write, because some of them usually do it as the word sounds, and that is one of the things I need to reinforce.

On the other hand, sometimes when discipline problems come out, it’s difficult for me to keep the students busy, since they are very fast, and no matter how many activities I give them, they finish quickly and sometimes, it becomes a mess. This is one of the things I really need to learn how to control.

I generally like my classes, especially with children, because they have fun with everything, but with pre-teens, it’s a little difficult, because they don’t like anything, not even songs.

I’ve tried to apply different things I’ve read about it, and also what my colleagues do, but things don’t go the same way, because the students are different.

Luisa Fernanda Quintero Correa

On Reflective teaching: Teacher Paola Andrea Cardona

When someone ask me about a “good class” I think about one where all the objectives that I stated from the beginning went just the way I wanted.

My last course was “Kids 2”: a nice group, eleven students between 8-10 years old, different learning styles: a real challenge.
I found out that dealing with kids doesn’t involve all this concentration and patience most of the people say; when you plan your class in a really organized way. This particular class was about animals (environment, behaviors, etc) and we developed role plays (including me), we had a lot of fun and I went back to my “school time”. It was a great class because the students were participating actively and they understood what the lesson was about. For the first time in this year I’ve been teaching I felt like one of my students, I got involved so much that I could really understand them. Something that made my day was when one of my students (a boy who’s really shy) came to me and said: “teacher, thank you, I had a good time here”.


But of course I’ve had classes in which I’ve ended feeling not so good, for instance, I think that dealing with discipline is not easy at all. When you have 3 students misbehaving, you feel frustrated, or that’s what happened to me.

I remember a class in which I explained a topic quite difficult for the kids: “possessive adjectives”, I was making a draft on the board and I could hear the whispers behind me, 3 boys talking about something that didn’t have to do anything with the class. It was annoying because they were not focused on the class and at the same time weren’t allowing their classmates to pay attention. I tried every single strategy to focus them on the topic but they simply didn’t want to pay attention.

At the end of the class I talked with them and explained me that at school they had have an “English journey” so they were tired about English. Of course I understood them but anyway that situation was very annoying and frustrating.

Paola Andrea Cardona Márquez.